A definition of web site hosting

As its name denotes, web hosting is a service, which involves hosting web content. There are different forms and types of web hosting, depending on the mission and on the functions. However, they all pertain to hosting files, which, once hosted, are made available through the World Wide Web. A host is actually a web hosting service that is connected to the Internet and has its own personal IP address, which allows users to access it through the Internet. The hosting server's architecture and its system resources are dependent on the kind of hosting service it will be used for.

What are the various types of web hosting?

Based on the goal, the business website hosting service may be:

File Web Hosting - this form of web hosting permits the users to stash their files on a certain hosting server. With the traditional file storage web hosting solution, the files that are stored may only be accessed by the user that's using the service. This web hosting service mainly appertains to backups of PCs , documents, private files and even other servers. This solution may also have given restrictions when it comes to the server storage space and the root-level access. There may also be web traffic restrictions, but that depends on the actual web host.

Warez Web Hosting - the so-called warez web hosting service is resembling the previous web hosting service type. Nonetheless, unlike the file storage hosting solution, the warez hosting solution is used for propagating licensed materials without the authorization of the license possessor. To cut a long story short - it pertains to the prohibited distribution of files and documents. There are a lot of ways for this to be carried out, but the two chief ways are - via simple HTTP downloading and through P2P connections. The first way involves either a certain web page, or, most typically, simply a directory on a web hosting server that's been made available for everyone to access it and thus download patented materials free of cost. The second method entails a P2P connection, availing of the so-called Torrent servers, through which people share files between each other. There are not many website hosting suppliers that allow that form of web hosting on their servers, chiefly due to all the legal troubles that it presupposes. Typically such websites are hosted on private dedicated web hosting servers that are registered by 3rd party corporations either in the Middle East or in Asia.

E-mail Web Hosting - this service is applicable with both shared web page hosting and dedicated servers, depending on the customer's wish. If you desire to set up your own private SMTP email server, then you will need either a VPS hosting server or a dedicated hosting server that provides the access level required to execute such an operation. For common mail web hosting purposes, though, you can open a simple shared webspace hosting account, to which you can point the MX records of your domain name. This is not a service that's widely popular, since the site hosting and the mail hosting services are being served by two separate servers, usually owned by separate hosts.

Web Page Hosting - the most widely spread and broadly used hosting service today. It's utilized for hosting site files, whose type is dependent on the OS the hosting server is using - Linux or Windows. Different sorts of files need concrete server Operating Systems, otherwise they won't be shown properly on the Internet. This kind of web hosting may involve web storage space and traffic quota limits, root-level access and central processing unit usage limits.

Based on the mission and on the objectives, the customer should pick the kind of hosting server that he needs for his project, and, of course, the web hosting company that's going to provide it. There are several types of hosting servers, depending on the configuration and the web space hosting solutions that they offer. These are:

Shared Hosting Server - a shared web page hosting server supplies a smaller amount of resources, which, of course, is reflected on the price of the service. It can be utilized for hosting small and medium size web sites, which do not require immense quotas of server storage space and web traffic.

Semi-Dedicated Servers Hosting - they perform on the same principle as the shared webspace hosting servers. Even so, there are much fewer users hosted on the same hosting server. Hence, each of them will receive a greater share of the hosting server's resources like RAM, disk space, bandwidth and CPU. Perfect for hosting immense websites that do not need server root access.

VPS - the private virtual hosting servers are perfect for medium scale web pages, which do need root access to the server's config files. Commonly, there are a few private virtual server accounts placed on the same server. However, each of them is insulated from the other ones and has its own OS.

Dedicated Server - a fully dedicated physical machine set up and accessed by you and solely you. It ensures a huge amount of resources. It also gives complete server root access, which renders it the optimal environment for any type of online portal that requires a web hosting service.

The only question that's left is:

Which website hosting company should I opt for?

As mentioned, there are just a few providers providing warez web hosting solutions because of legal complications. Such companies are being shut down practically every month. That is why, if you wish to set up such a service, you should do it on your very own PC. The shared web space hosting service is the most widespread kind of hosting service. Therefore, each and every web space hosting vendor provides it. Not all of them, though, offer solutions such as virtual servers, semi-dedicated servers and dedicated servers. Most of the small sized web site hosting companies do not have the means required for offering those services. Therefore it's invariably best to select a bigger host that can provide its customers with all the services that they are looking for. You can quickly ID such hosts by the kinds of services that they are making available and by the way that they present them to the clientele. For instance, some hosting companies permit you to commence with a small scale site hosting package and then upgrade to a more powerful one, if you find it compulsory to do so. This is quite suitable, because you do not have to move websites between servers and there is no possibility of suffering service interruptions due to all the predicaments that may occur. Companies like Toxist provide all kinds of services and possess the required hosting server resources and staff to guarantee that their customers will not face any complications when changing services, which is what a top hosting corporation is actually all about.